An intriguing start to what I hope is a decent length series. Elliot joins a new school after the death of his dad and is drawn into a group of new friends who spot his potential as a witch. At an initiation ceremony Elliot accidentally summons a demon and begins to have horrible visions, which unfortunately come true. One of their coven makes a wish to be popular and turns her back on the group, becoming homecoming queen at prom. Elliot fancies the school''s top footballer, who he thinks might like him back. There's a great cliffhanger with Elliot being in a precarious position, while the demon goes on a murder spree.

the Witches of Silverlake opens on Elliot, our protag, freshly moved to a brand new town and school system after his dad's recent suicide and Elliot's subsequent attempt. his mom is the principal and, at the beginning, understandably worried about him. (she kinda disappears from the story later on and stops texting to check in with Elliot, but who am I to judge her parenting style.)

Elliot brings a black tourmaline crystal with him to class, which apparently belonged to his father and still reminds Elliot of fond memories. he's set it down on his desk when the girl sitting next to him goes to try and touch it and bam! the crystal lights up like a touch lamp. Elliot crams the crystal in his pocket and skedaddles out of class but honestly doesn't seem particularly surprised, just a bit weirded out.

the girls from class corner him later and introduce themselves as Alex and Rachel. they just straight up announce to Elliot that they're witches and they think he might be a witch too. (I struggled a little with this plot point. magic was clearly not a commonly known concept and Elliot didn't appear to have any prior knowledge of it, but he reacts so calmly to this reveal and just 100% goes with the flow. I guess we're supposed to assume that Elliot is cool with it bc he's been suffering from some super violent, HD nightmares of strangers get McMurdered in strange places; so what's magic to add on top of that? but idk, it felt weird and forced to me.)

Alex and Rachel insist that Elliot come with them and meet the rest of the coven, which includes Tobias, Kara, and Dominic "Dom". they are all apparently new to witchcraft (I have zero idea how the coven came together in the first place considering their minimal knowledge, but I guess that'll be addressed in a future volume?) but they want to do an initiation ceremony for Elliot and they're all very excited to have him. they crowd together into one of the girls' sheds for this process and all share their secret desires; to have power, to never be surprised again, to be seen as beautiful as they are. it's all very sweet and touchy-feely.

unfortunately, while the coven is bonding and having a merry time elsewhere, there is a suspicious person who is apparently communing with demons and theoretically wants Elliot's powers. (I think? I couldn't quite put my finger on what that dude was all about, but I will give him full points for style. he definitely embraces the "is that a cult member or an old time racist?" aesthetic.) he smooshes the demon into a crystal and then sends that crystal to Elliot via a suspicious gift box, for some presumably malicious purpose.


overall I liked the story and I'm interested in seeing a second volume but it didn't blow me out of the water. I wanted more character development; it felt like everything that genuinely intrigued me got gently nudged off to the side while the plot went careening onward.

some of my favorite bits of this though were the character profiles at the very end (do not read them first, they are full of spoilers lol) and the art style. I absolutely loved the art! everybody was so amazingly expressive and I am particularly fond of the way the artist draws eyes and eyelashes. also, Tobias' whole vibe and wardrobe is top shelf and you call tell the artist really put some thought and pizzazz into his outfits.


4/5 stars



(this is just me venting about Rachel lol but it does spoil some of the plot so read at your own risk)
[but can we talk about Rachel ??? what in the hell was that arc. it is already difficult trying to keep up with the timeline in this graphic novel (I think they really could've benefitted from occasional subtitles marking the day) but Rachel's sudden disappearance followed by ,,, I guess a solid week of radio silence ?? followed by her spontaneous arrival at the prom announcements, looking spectacular and ignoring her friends was bizarre. I couldn't figure out how long she'd been ignoring them and when I was told outright (a whole week?!?!) I was perplexed as to why this wasn't brought up sooner. why did nobody stop by her house? if my best friend fell off the face of the planet for a week with zero heads-up I would at least drive by and ask her mom if she was still alive, smdh. (hide spoiler)]



queer rep - achillean mc, trans sc, femme queer sc, bi/pan sc, achillean love interest
thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for the arc ✨

This was a fun first book in the series. Elliot is the new kid and quickly befriends a really cool group of people that just happen to be be a coven. It turns out magic is real, but unfortunately so are demons that keep stalking the coven and murdering people around them. This book was a bit gorier than I expected, actually. Obviously, since this is volume one, we don't have that many answers yet, but I am curious about how the story will develop from here. And I enjoyed the diverse cast a lot!

This book ticks a lot of boxes in terms of what many of my teens are interested in right now; the "normal teens doing supernatural stuff" type of set-up, the queer rep, the found family themes. And the book does deliver in a lot of ways. The mystery is intriguing, the art lovely, and the characters (if perhaps somewhat stereotypical) feel relatable.

Unfortunately, I'd say this book is a little rough around the edges. I'm not a massive fan of the dialogue. It doesn't flow very well a lot of the time, and neither does the narration. In fact, the book has flow issues in its entirety. Transitions between scenes aren't always handled very well, which leaves the passage of time and sequence of events somewhat confusing.

Overall I did enjoy this, and I think that any teens that are currently in a Riverdale, Stranger Things, or generally witchy phase would have a good time with this. But there are far better entries into that category out there, so it's a soft recommend at best.

The Witches of Silverlake (Vol. 1) was an enjoyable read, but I probably will not pick it up again. This is because it felt a little unpolished - some scenes were a little hard to follow, and the interactions between the characters felt a little unrealistic (the main character joined a new friend group with just a few sentences exchanged). Other than that, I did enjoy the overarching storyline, and the art style.

I really enjoyed this graphic novel - found the storyline engaging and the illustration was fantastic. I had been a little worried that it would be too gory for me but it was done really well.
The LGBTQIA+ rep in this book is wonderful and there is a really diverse set of characters, excited for volume 2.
I rated this 3.5 stars

The art and character designs in this book were beautiful. At times the language felt a bit clunky and the plot often moved very quickly, meaning that there was not always as much tension. The gradual unfolding of the magic systems was fun.

Holyyyyyyy.

So. I'm loving the art, the character design, and I am invested in this magical, bloody murder mystery! I was immediately drawn in by the characters, the way they immediately took Elliot in as their own. I'm really interested in the next volume too!

This comic was so incredibly good!!
Our main character Elliot is going through a very tough time in his life and starts at a new school.
There he joins a witch coven and this get really spooky!

I absolutely adore the art style and the way the characters are built!!

Content warning- this book discusses suicide ideation and suicide, domestic violence, as well as mental illness. This book has a really dark and creepy feel to it, definitely a great graphic novel to read around Halloween. There's a lot of mentions of mental illness and suicide as well as quite a few graphic panels, so I'm not sure it would be appropriate for anyone younger than high-school-aged. The story itself is very unique and there's quite a bit of racial and queer diversity. I'm interested to see where Curtis goes next with the storyline, I hope that there's able to be more back story with all the other characters as I'd love to hear more about their home lives.

I really bummed about this one. The concept for this and the art style is so up my alley heck even the plot is great. This could have been a really cool series if it wasn't for dialog.
All of these characters sounds nothing like real teenagers. Their dialog feel like an AI wrote it after watching all the seasons of Glee. I mean its like the authors has never been near real teenagers.
Also the characters were all stereotypes. We had the ultra feminine gay, the "slutty" bisexual, the butch lesbian, and the shy new kid and, not a single original person in the group.
Sadly this story is just a major pass for me.

I usually have a look at other reviews before posting mine. I was surprised to see some of the reviews for this book.

I love this one, absolutely love this one. It is not a graphic novel for everyone though due to the large amount of gore in it. The drawings are well-done and the storyline of a troubled teenager finding comradeship with witches is bound to attract some supporters among teenagers.

It is not a book for everyone but if you are into stories about witches, this one is for you.

Well done illustration but the plot is somewhat lacking, spent a bulk of time introducing things that weren’t explained and could have spent more time introducing and crafting character’s personalities.

This is a fun graphic novel! However, there is a lot of violence and gore. I was very shocked at the amount of gore within the first two pages. Keep that in mind when reading!

Disappeared off my device before I had the chance to read it. Thank you for the ARC, Netgalley. I will read it once published.

This was a great start to what I hope is a successful series for Simon Curtis. 'The Witches of Silverlake' takes cues from many popular witch-centric media and adds a beautiful layer of inclusivity. The art style is beautiful and I was so engrossed by the story that when it was over, I wanted to start the volume over again.

If your readers are looking for something with similarities to 'The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' or 'The Craft,' they will absolutely love this.

This was dark and brooding and overall a fun read. I don't know if I would continue reading it but the story was unique and a fun take on the genre.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

This feels unfinished? I know it's only volume one, but I can't help feeling I'm missing something. I mostly liked it though otherwise.

Elliott moves to LA, joins a coven of witches, and somehow unleashes a murderous demon. Loved the 90s Buffy/Charmed/The Craft vibes of this book, both in the plotline and in the illustrations. The soft pastel color palette interrupted by vivid red blood and demons was very fun! I also enjoyed the diverse cast of characters and queer representation. The pacing was a little uneven at times, and more depth of character development would have been welcome. None of the mysteries are resolved at the end of this volume, but it’s a fun series opener.

ARC provided by NetGalley!

This was such a blast - I had requested it awhile ago on NetGalley then saw it being promoted at Librarycon and wanted to read it even more. By the time I was approved I had kind of forgotten about it and was reading it just to read…and I LOVED it!! I had recently read The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina and this gave me the same vibes. The bone chilling illustrations of the red demon haunts me a little and the grotesque deaths in it as well. I love love love the characters and always support (almost) entirely queer casts lol. The story itself is intriguing and very engaging although confusing at times. My assumption is this is on purpose to gain more intrigue since we aren’t really sure what the demons want with Elliot. I especially loved the character bios at the end, normally I skim over those but these were actually super helpful and made me even more excited for the future. I want to see their powers and what is in the works for them!! For sure adding to our library 🧙‍♀️